A Nightmare, A Hug
by BOO-imawriter
Summary: As our dear captain continues to indulge in his nightly excursions to the women's quarters, our dear navigator's dreams start to turn bad. What ensues? Not a very good summary, I think?


Hello, this is my first try at LuNa so I'm not sure its that good, it came out a lot darker than i originally planned  
>Warning: Super-OOC unless One Piece suddenly turns romantic and LuNa becomes a real possibility<br>I'm not sure what rating this should be, so its K+ until someone tells me otherwise  
>I'm proof-reading at 2 am in the morning at my side, I wonder if most fanfiction writers experience this (lol)<br>Pleaase give me your honest feedback!

Disclaimer: If I owned One Piece, the aforementioned Super-OOC would instead be perfectly IC

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><p>The door opened silently as a straw hat bearing figure sneaked into the room.<p>

Queerly, this wasn't the kitchen as one would expect. Indeed, if he were to sneak into the kitchen to steal food from the fridge, it would be perfectly understandable. However, since the fridge in question was locked with a coded lock, along with the fact that he was not stupid enough to destroy the fridge with his new strength, he hasn't tried in the past few days.

No, in the past few days, when he wasn't sleeping, he was sneaking into another room altogether.

The neatly folded bed at the side gave him assurance that the resident archaeologist was really on look-out. The roster was written nicely on the paper at the base of the crow's nest; he had also asked Robin personally, but he was getting a feeling that he was becoming delusional.

The reason to that was sleeping in the other bed in the room.

He slowly walked over to the bed before sitting down on the floor about 2 feet away from the bed, watching the face of the unsuspecting navigator. At first it was hard to see in the dark, but this had become such a habitual process that he could now make out the features of Nami's face effortlessly. Robin had cast questioning glances at him before this, perhaps suspecting that Luffy had become less innocent and was trying to get back at Nami for the scolding on deck, but after a while she no longer bothered to look up from her book. Not that it mattered tonight.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but it did and somehow the straw hat navigator became more than just the navigator on the ship to him. He wasn't stupid as most people would perceive. He knew _exactly_ what he was going through and he hid it as well as he could. Hopefully, Nami didn't notice all the times he was sitting with his back to the sea, just watching her as she watered her tangerine trees. Or that his hand tended to miss her plate when he was stealing food, at times avoiding the entire side she was on. Or that he was getting her angry more and more often, just so that she would focus her attention upon him. Or that… a small noise escaped from the bed he was staring at, bringing him back from his daydream. He looked over to see her turning around in her bed. It took a while before he realised that she was having a nightmare. She started tossing and turning in her bed while murmuring in her sleep.

Not that it hadn't happened before. Sometimes, he thought that his mere presence could chase her bad dreams away, but that was a thought that even he knew was naïve. The first time that it happened, he was at a complete loss, eyes wide in panic as he searched the room for anything that could bring some comfort to her. It was Robin that suggested the relatively simple solution to that: his straw hat. He had no idea why Nami would have any attachment to the straw hat, but in his panic his brain processes did not even register that point as he gently placed it over her head. Almost instantly, as if the straw hat had placed a magic spell upon her, she stopped tossing around, after a while she even wore a bright smile on her face, which seemed to light up the dark room. After that time, he always did that whenever she seemed to have a nightmare, to take it off in the morning before she woke up. He always wondered why his hat gave her such a reaction, in the end he assumed it gave her comfort just as it did at Arlong Park and on the Maxim up in Skypiea. In a way, it made him jealous of his own hat that it meant so much to her. However, it successfully drove her nightmares away, so he simply accepted it as such.

Not tonight though. As he placed his hat onto her like so many times before, instead of relaxing and snuggling into her pillow as she did those times, she started tossing more violently and her mouth changed from a small frown that he nagged at his heart to a more distinct one that seemed to tear his heart open. Her features were showing real pain at this point and his mind switched straight to panic mode as his mind searched for a way out of this current plight. As he finally decided to leave and ask Robin for help, he heard something from the bed.

"Luffy…"

He looked back to see Nami continuing to toss and turn around the bed. _I __am __in __her __nightmare?_ He could not understand how he, even in her dreams, could fail to help her, no matter what the situation was. _Was __it __a __nightmare __of __that __day __at __the __Sabaody __Archipelago?_ While he thought, he heard something else.

"Don't leave me…"

Now _that_ was new. At this point he was clean out of ideas. _Was __she __imagining __me __leaving __her? __Why __would __she __even __dream __that? _His face turned red after thinking a while before he was brought back to Earth by her again.

"Please don't leave…"

He was at a loss now. He had placed his hat on her and that certainly wasn't working. What else could he do? Should he wake her up? Somehow he knew that wasn't the right option. For one thing it would reveal that he was watching her, also he had no idea how she would react when she woke up. What would he do if she decided to run away from him, knowing that he probably heard everything? Or if she decided to ignore him forever because she felt that she had misplaced her trust in him? Or even worse, she decides to leave the crew? He was sure she never understood the rationale that he never asked her to join back to the crew just as he did with Usopp. The thing is, to him, she never left the crew to begin with. Another sound from the bed shocked him; he then noticed that tears had started to flow from her eyes.

That made him decide to act on instinct rather than to think anymore. He still remembered the promise he made to the old man Genzo 2 years ago, but at some point he had made that same promise to himself when he realised how much she meant to him. Seeing her with tearing up made his eyes want to tear up as well; when her face showed the emotions that he as the captain could not display in front of them, he would automatically try to comfort her or, alternatively, leave that to Robin as he pulverized the poor being that dared caused harm to his navigator. As her smile made his day brighter, her tears brought him sorrow as well. In fact, he would rather be beaten up by her in the morning rather than to watch her cry now. Somehow, her happiness had even found itself higher up his priority list than his well-being.

Of course, these thoughts never even passed through his mind. It was as if his instincts had already processed all of this beforehand and caused him to react accordingly. He stood up and walked slowly to the bed before placing a hand on her to stop her from turning. She was now lying on side, as if facing him, with his hat somehow managing to balance itself onto her head through her tosses and turns. He used his other hand to gently wipe away the tears that were flowing down before setting his hat firmly upon her head.

"Luffy…"

He suspected that she may have woken up, but realised that her hands were reaching out to him, as if inviting him to join him in her bed. Something he highly doubted the Nami that was awake would do. He snuck underneath her blanket and proceeded to wrap both his arms around her, one of his hands ending up on her waist while the other came up to his hat as he pressed it along with her head into his chest. He felt her hands come up to his chest and thought that she was going to push him away before she suddenly snuggled into his chest as if he was a pillow.

"Luffy…"

He could feel his face heating up as she snuggled up to his chest. He had intended to hug her for a while and get out when dawn broke, but that was now highly unlikely with her arms tightening their hold around his waist and her outer leg draping over his in an attempt to pull him closer to her. He wondered if he should forcefully push himself away, then seeing the now peaceful figure of his navigator sleeping soundly against his chest he decided against it, instead choosing to allow slumber to take him away.

He secretly wondered what expression Nami would have when she woke up. Then he started thinking what sort of beating he would get in the morning before he fell asleep hugging his navigator.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~the next day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Nami woke up, she felt strange. She was sure she was having a nightmare, one about _Luffy_ no less, but then after a while something seemed to chase away that bad dream. Also, her pillow seemed different; she didn't remember it being so rough, so hard and so nice to snuggle upon…

Then her eyes opened and she felt her face turn red as she realised what the 'pillow' she was snuggling into was.

She didn't need to see the X-shaped scar on the chest nor did she need to feel the straw hat pressed against her head to know who it was that she was treating as her pillow. His distinctive presence, along with all the other small things that people don't really notice, was so clear to her that any sort of disguise or change to him would probably be unable to mask it.

She wondered if she should try to get out of his grasp. Despite her brilliant poker face that she wore whenever she was around him, she was sure he had caught her at times, watching him as she sunbathed on the deck while he was sitting on Sunny's head. Or that her scolding has become less and less intense towards despite maintaining the devilish aura around the others. Or that she tried to sit closer to him, only to realise that he never stole food from her or anyone beside her. Or that… she was snapped from her line of thought as the one holding her close started murmuring in his sleep.

"Nami… don't worry… I'll chase all your bad dreams away…"

She smiled as she snuggled against the chest of her captain, deciding to savour the moment. _So __you __were __the __one __chasing __my __nightmares __away..._ She smiled as she found herself drifting back to dreamland. She knew that she would not have any nightmares while in his embrace.

And thus, the couple continued to sleep in each others arms.

To be woken up, 2 hours later, by the sound of breaking porcelain and wailing from the resident love-cook.

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><p>So how was it? I assumed that they had a roster for the look-out and that they pasted it at the base of the crow's nest, so don't shoot me down for that.<br>I'm not sure the title really fits the story, does anyone have a good idea for one? Tell me too if I got the genre wrong too.  
>Please give me your honest opinions! (I don't really care if they're nasty as long as they're constructive)<p>

Thanks for reading!


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